Seek audience with UN Human Rights body, Ban tells Palace

 The Duterte administration has not violated human rights in its ongoing war on illegal drugs.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said when he talked to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon at the end of Wednesday’s ASEAN gala dinner held here.

“I talked to him,” Panelo told reporters on the sidelines of the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits. “I explained to him that there are no violations of human rights.”

“I’m not a lawyer, I cannot argue with you,” Ban reportedly told Panelo, who answered back: “I am just telling you, I just want to assure you that we are following the law.”

Instead, Ban suggested that the Duterte administration seek an audience with the UN Human Rights Commission in order to clear those allegations that human rights are supposedly being violated by the government in the implementation of its war on crime, specifically the use and trafficking of illegal drugs.

Narrating his meeting with Ban, Panelo said he took the opportunity and the risk of breaking diplomatic protocol, when he approached the UN chief to defend the human rights records of the country.

But the problem is, Ban explained to the chief presidential legal counsel that there are a lot of people who are telling them otherwise.

“It is like he is saying in this particular situation, there are 10 people and nine of them are telling the UN that violations are really happening,” explained Panelo.

That is just the perception, Panelo apparently told Ban during their encounter.

“The UN is immediately reacting to wrong information it has received,” Panelo added.

Last June, Ban said he is “extremely disturbed” by remarks made by Duterte that journalists who take bribes deserve to die.

“I unequivocally condemn his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killing, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms,” said Ban in his remarks at the UN Correspondents Association Reception held in New York.

UN experts also criticized the Philippines for a wave of extrajudicial executions and killings amid the President’s war on drugs, which was a key point of his electoral platform. President Duterte responded by calling the UN “silly” and even threatened to withdraw the Philippines from it, a statement that was later retracted by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

It was also reported that Duterte refused to meet the UN secretary-general on the margins of the ASEAN Summit. Malacañang said the meeting could not happen due to scheduling conflict.

Last Wednesday, Duterte missed his attendance at the ASEAN-UN Summit where Ban was present.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Roy Mabasa

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